1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an open/close-type portable telephone, and in particular to the portable telephone having a speech recognition function.
2. Description of the Related Art
An increasing number of portable telephones with speech recognition function have been used in digital cellular telecommunication systems such as PDC (Personal Digital Cellular or digital cordless telephone systems such as PHS (Personal Handy-phone System).
For example, there has been proposed a portable telephone with enhanced security such that the dialing inhibition state thereof is canceled by recognizing predetermined input voice (see. Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-290286).
According to another portable telephone, by using the speech recognition function to input the name of a person who is to be called, the telephone number thereof is automatically read out and displayed on its display (see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-316193).
In general, such a voice-activated portable telephone has a speech recognition function which is activated by operating a speech recognition key provided on the major surface or the side surface of its housing.
On the other hand, a portable telephone generally has three types: straight-type; flip-type; and foldable-type. A straight-type telephone has a keypad, a speaker, and a microphone provided on the major surface thereof without a lid. A flip-type telephone has a lid with which a keypad, a speaker, and a microphone on the major surface thereof are covered. Therefore, when an incoming call occurs or making a call, the lid is opened by the user. A foldable-type telephone is composed of two housing parts which are foldable as necessary. When making a call, the user opens the housing parts to use it like a straight-type telephone. In such a flip-type or foldable-type portable telephone, a speech recognition key is provided on the major surface which is covered with the lid or the other housing when unused. Therefore, when activating the speech recognition function, the user must open the lid or the housings to operate the speech recognition key, resulting in some inconvenience.
There has been proposed a hands-free portable telephone having a speech recognition function in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-308818. This hands-free portable telephone uses the speech recognition function to allow complete hands-free operations such as dialing inhibition cancellation and dialing.
A conventional foldable portable telephone having an open/close detector has been disclosed (Japanese Patent No. 2531436). In this portable telephone, when the housings are opened, a predetermined telephone number is automatically dialed.
However, the above-described prior arts have the following disadvantages. In an open/close-type portable telephone such as foldable-type or flip-type one, when activating the speech recognition function, the user must open the lid or the housings to operate the speech recognition key, resulting in inconvenience.
Further, the hands-free portable telephone disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-308818 does not relate directly to an open/close-type portable telephone. Therefore, the above-mentioned disadvantage caused by the open/close-type portable telephone are not considered.
The conventional foldable portable telephone disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2531436, when opened, automatically dials a predetermined telephone number. Therefore, there is a possibility that an unauthorized person makes a call by opening the housings and at this time knows the predetermined telephone number, resulting in reduced security.
An object of the present invention is to provide an open/close-type portable telephone and a control method therefor allowing easy operation and enhanced security thereof.
According to the present invention, an open/close-type portable telephone includes a wireless telephone circuit, a speech input/output circuit, a speech recognizer for recognizing input speech inputted by the speech input/output circuit, a detector for detecting an open/close state of the portable telephone, and a controller for activating the speech recognizer when the detector detects that the portable telephone is in an open state.
After activating the speech recognizer, preferably, the controller cancels a dialing-inhibition state when the input speech is recognized as predetermined speech by the speech recognizer.
When the input speech is recognized as a predetermined speech corresponding to a predetermined phone number by the speech recognizer after activating the speech recognizer, the controller further controls the wireless telephone circuit to make a call at the predetermined phone number. The controller may cancel a dialing-inhibition state before controlling the wireless telephone circuit to dial the predetermined phone number.
The open/close-type portable telephone may include an input device, a display, and a memory for storing a plurality of phone numbers including a predetermined phone number. When the input speech is recognized as a predetermined speech corresponding to the predetermined phone number by the speech recognizer after activating the speech recognizer, the controller further controls the display to display the predetermined phone number thereon and, after a lapse of a predetermined time period, controls the wireless telephone circuit to dial the predetermined phone number. Further, the telephone is provided with a timer set for the predetermined time period through the Input device.
The open/close-type portable telephone may include a memory for storing a plurality of phone numbers including a plurality of predetermined phone numbers. When the input speech is recognized as a predetermined speech corresponding to the plurality of predetermined phone numbers by the speech recognizer after activating the speech recognizer, the controller further controls the display to display the predetermined phone numbers thereon and, after a lapse of a predetermined time period, controls the wireless telephone circuit to dial a selected one of the predetermined phone numbers displayed. The selected one of the predetermined phone numbers displayed may be selected by speech input through the speech recognizer.
At least a part of the predetermined phone number is preferably masked with a predetermined symbol.